Wheat Berry, Green Olive & Roasted Pepper Salad

by Lynne on January 22, 2012

I decided to make this Wheat Berry, Green Olive and Roasted Pepper Salad after paging through the January 2012 issue of Sunset Magazine. It featured several absolutely gorgeous salads made with grains, which reminded me I had a package of Bob’s Red Mill Soft White Wheat Berries languishing in my cupboard. Plus I have to laugh and admit I am one of those people who have “Eat Healthier” on my New Year’s Resolutions list. You know, along with get more sleep, go for a walk three times a week, save ten percent of my paycheck and clean out the garage. So I made this salad and I’m feeling just so danged righteous right now. One day at a time, right?

Around 13,000 BC, hunter-gatherers in modern Syria harvested wild cereal grasses, such as einkorn wheat and emmer wheat. It was first domesticated around 9,000 BC in Lebanon, Syria, the Levant, Israel, Egypt and Ethiopia. Because wheat could be grown on a large scale and be stored for a long time, it was a key factor in hunter-gatherers transitioning to city-based societies which were emerging in the Fertile Crescent.

Common wheat was first domesticated in Western Asia and spread from there to North Africa, Europe and East Asia. Wheat first reached North America with the Spanish missions in the 16th century.

Wheat berries are the entire wheat kernel (without the hull), which includes the bran, germ and endosperm. One fourth cup of raw wheat berries has 7 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber and 10% of the daily value of iron, with only 1 gram of fat and zero cholesterol. You need to make this salad right now!

1. Place wheat berries, water and salt in a sauce pan. Bring to a rolling boil, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for one to 1 ½ hours or until tender. Drain and cool spread out on a foil-covered sheet pan.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cover a sheet pan with foil and spray lightly. Place pepper quarters on pan and spray lightly with cooking spray. Lightly dust with salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 30 minutes. Cool on pan. Cut into ¾-inch squares.

Hello! My name is Lynne Hemer and I am a woman obsessed with food and cooking, in search of new, unusual, exotic and sublime ingredients and recipes. I love reading cookbooks, taking cooking classes, going to restaurants, photographing food, and blogging about it all! I hope you enjoy my website as much as I enjoy creating it.